TLU Baseball Wins Series Against Pacific (OR)

SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Baseball held off a late inning Pacific rally for a 7-6 win over the Boxers Sunday afternoon at Katt-Isbel Field.

The Bulldogs (2-1) scored four runs in the fifth inning to break the game open to a 7-2 lead. The Boxers would score four runs over the final four innings but TLU would prevent a complete Boxers comeback to complete the series win over the 2022 Northwest Conference champions.

Zach Longshore (Richmond/Ft. Bend Travis) made his first start of the 2023 campaign, pitching four innings with eight strikeouts, allowing just one run on five hits to pick up his first win of the season. Blade Strzelczyk (San Antonio/East Central) picked up the save, his second of the season, allowing one run on one hit and striking out two. With the save, Strzelczyk moved into second all-time in SCAC history with 15 career saves. As a staff, TLU struck out 17 batters for the second time in three games and struck out an impressive 45 batters in total on the weekend.

Asher Bonnell (Round Rock/Stony Point) went 2-for-4 with a solo homer - the first of his collegiate career - while Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson) went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI and Holden Philippus (San Antonio/San Antonio Christian) was 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and two runs scored.

TLU scored the first two runs of the game in the first inning courtesy of an RBI double from Holden Philippus, who would later score on a Boxers scoring error.

Pacific would score on a passed ball in the top of the fourth to cut the TLU lead in half but Asher Bonnell quickly launched a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to regain the two run advantage.

Pacific would hit a solo home run of their own in the top of the fifth, before TLU would pour on four runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-2 lead. A two RBI double from Tyler Post, who finished the opening weekend with seven RBI, and RBI from Aric Vasquez (San Antonio/Brandeis) and Niko Garcia (Houston/Langham Creek) were the catalyst for the Bulldogs extending their lead.

Pacific responded with a run in the sixth, two runs in the eighth, and a towering solo home run in the top of the ninth to close the gap to 7-6. Strzelczyk would settle down after allowing the leadoff home run in the ninth, striking out two of the final three batters he faced to close the door and seal the Bulldogs win.

Texas Lutheran will travel to Austin, Texas, next week to participate in the Concordia Classic hosted by Concordia University. Texas Lutheran will face Pacific Lutheran and George Fox in a Saturday doubleheader with first pitch scheduled for 12:30 and 4 PM on Saturday, Feb. 11. All streaming and stat links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.

For more information on Texas Lutheran baseball and all TLU athletics, you can find updates on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics and @TLU_Baseball on Twitter, @tlubulldogs on Instagram and Facebook, and @tlu_athletics on TikTok).